Suni Williams, Yuri Malenchenko & Akihiko Hoshide joined in conducting the regular weekly three-hour task of thorough cleaning of their home. ["Uborka", usually done on Saturdays, includes removal of food waste products, cleaning of compartments with vacuum cleaner, damp cleaning of the SM dining table, other frequently touched surfaces and surfaces where trash is collected, as well as the sleep stations with a standard cleaning solution; also, fan screens and grilles are cleaned to avoid temperature rises. Special cleaning is also done every 90 days on the HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) bacteria filters in the Lab.]

As part of Uborka house cleaning, Yuri today completed regular weekly maintenance inspection & cleaning of fan screens in the FGB (TsV2) plus Group E fan grilles in the SM (VPkhO, FS5, FS6, VP), the SKV air conditioner in the SM, plus the POTOK-150MK (150 micron) pre-filters of the SM's & FGB's SOGS air revitalization subsystem.

FE-6 Hoshide performed the (currently almost daily) service of the WRS (Water Recovery System), using the Russian pumping equipment to initiate the periodic water transfer from a degassed CWC-I (Contingency Water Container-Iodinated) to the WPA WST (Water Processor Assembly Water Storage Tank) via "tee" hose and a freshly installed MRF (Microbial Removal Filter) cartridge as gas trap. The MRF was left connected for future operations.

Suni Williams had a 15-min spot allotted on her timeline for printing out uplinked EVA-20 procedures.

At ~8:50am EDT, the three crewmembers held the regular WPC (Weekly Planning Conference) with the ground, discussing next week's "Look-Ahead Plan" (prepared jointly by MCC-H and TsUP-Moscow timeline planners), via S-band/audio, reviewing upcoming activities and any concerns about future on-orbit events.

At ~1:45pm, Suni Williams was scheduled for an amateur/ham radio session from the SM with students at the National Scouting Museum, Irving, TX.

The crew worked out on the TVIS treadmill with vibration isolation & stabilization (FE-4/2x), ARED advanced resistive exercise device (CDR, FE-6), and T2/COLBERT advanced treadmill (CDR, FE-6). [CDR & FE-6 are on the special experimental SPRINT protocol which diverts from the regular 2.5 hrs per day exercise regime and introduces special daily sessions involving resistive and aerobic (interval & continuous) exercise, followed by a USND (Ultrasound) leg muscle self scan in COL. No exercise is being timelined for Suni on Friday, for Aki on Thursday. If any day is not completed, Suni & Aki pick up where they left off, i.e., they would be finishing out the week with the last day of exercise on her off day.]

WRM Update: A new WRM (Water Recovery Management) "cue card" was uplinked to the crew for their reference, updated with their latest CWC (Contingency Water Container) water audit. [The new card (32-0005E) lists 20 CWCs (254.63 L total), including 2 empty bags, for the five types of water identified on board: 1. Silver technical water (3 CWCs with 113.1 L); 2. Condensate water (3 CWCs with 14.0 L, plus 2 empty bags); 3. Iodinated water (10 CWCs with 79.05 L); 4. Waste water (1 CWC with 9.68 L bag EMU waste water), 5. Special Fluid (OGS) (1 CWC with 2.5 L), and Off-Nominal Water (2 CWCs with 36.3 L. Also one leaky CWC (#1024) with 8.5 L, stowed in ATV3 for disposal. No bags with Wautersia bacteria. Other CWCs are stowed behind racks and are currently not being tracked due to unchanging contents. Wautersia bacteria are typical water-borne microorganisms that have been seen previously in ISS water sources. These isolates pose no threat to human health.]

Tasks listed for FE-4 Malenchenko on the Russian discretionary "time permitting" job for today were -
* More preparation & downlinking of reportages (written text, photos, videos) for the Roskosmos website to promote Russia's manned space program (max. file size 500 Mb),
* A ~30-min. session for Russia's EKON Environmental Safety Agency, making observations and taking KPT-3 aerial photography of environmental conditions on Earth using the NIKON D3X camera with the RSK-1 laptop, and
* A ~30-min. run of the GFI-8 "Uragan" (hurricane) earth-imaging program with the NIKON D3X digital camera with Sigma AF 300-800mm telelens and PI emission platform using the SKPF-U (Photo Image Coordinate Reference System) to record target sites on the Earth surface.

Weekly Science Update (Expedition Thirty-Three - Week 16)

2D NANO Template (JAXA): Mission completed.

3D SPACE: Complete.

ACE-1 (Advanced Colloids Experiment 1, NASA):

ALTCRISS (Alteino Long Term monitoring of Cosmic Rays on the ISS): Complete.

ALTEA SHIELD Shielding (NASA/ASI): To date, the session #2 has progressed nominally, with 68 cumulative days (of minimal 40 / preferred 60 days, no maximum acquisition duration) of science acquisition. The science team has formally confirmed the validity of the session #2 data. Though the preferred amount of data acquisition is reached, it is planned to continue measuring until the storage of ALTEA SHIELD. Further data collection is expected to support statistical analyses later on. [Background: Cosmic radiation consists of very small, atomic-sized particles that are flying around in space at tremendous speeds. Their energy is so high that these particles, like tiny bullets, can permeate through the complete structure of the ISS. Exposure of astronauts to cosmic radiation is risky from a medical point of view. The best way to protect our astronauts against cosmic radiation is to build the complete ISS from lead! This would solve the problem but the enormous mass can impossibly be launched into space. Therefore different materials, much lighter than lead, are being tested to be used as shielding materials. Two of those will be investigated in the ALTEA-SHIELD experiment. The effectiveness of the shielding materials will be measured on board by a set of special radiation detectors. Some detectors will be covered with tiles made of shielding materials, some others will not. We are looking forward to find out what difference it will make!"]

Amine Swingbed (NASA): During fault tree analysis, the project determined the root cause for the position sensor anomaly experienced on GMT 175. It was discovered that the set screws that secure the valve drive key on the motor gearbox (launched aboard 30S and installed on GMT163) were not torqued sufficiently. This causes the drive key to slip within the gearbox, thus not rotating the valve fully. The project presented a recovery plan to the Payload Failure Investigation Team (PFIT) and were given the go ahead to implement the plan. This includes tightening the set screws as well as verifying the proximity sensor functions properly. Additionally during ground testing, it was discovered that our payload control software has a minor calculation error that would prohibit successful operation. Independent of the crew procedure, the project is working an updated software load that can be completed from the ground. The project is currently scheduled for the Ops Tagup on 10/19 with the plan to have all ops products complete by the end of October.

BASS (Burning and Suppression of Solids, NASA): (The BASS hardware has been stowed until we resume tests beginning sometime in December 2012 or January 2013.)
BCAT-6 (Binary Colloidal Alloy Test 6, CSA): No report. [Colloids are particles as small as a few tens of nanometers (a thousandth of a thousandth of a millimeter) that are suspended in a medium, usually a liquid or a gas. The name "colloid" comes from the Greek word for "glue", and expresses very important properties of colloids: when small and light enough, particles can be influenced in their behavior by forces of electromagnetic origin, and make them stick together, or repel each other depending on the configuration. Colloids are widely studied in science because the forces between particles can be controlled and tuned and because particles, while being small enough to be influenced by such forces, are big and slow enough to be seen with a relatively simple and inexpensive laboratory instrument like a microscope. This is why colloids are often studied as model for molecular systems (like standard gases or liquids) where molecules, the individual constituents, are much smaller than colloids and cannot be seen with light. As mentioned, forces between colloids can be tuned giving rise to a rich variety of phenomena. One of them is aggregation, which is when particles stick together and tend to form structures. Among the many ways to induce particle aggregation, one allows to do so by controlling the temperature of the solution in which the particles are immersed, thanks to very weak forces called "critical Casimir forces" that have been predicted more than 30 years ago but just partially verified in experiments. The objective of SODI COLLOID is to measure such forces and produce a controlled aggregation of tiny plastic particles. This would allow to shed light on critical Casimir forces and to make a step towards the fabrication of new nanostructured materials with remarkable optical properties for industrial applications.]

DECLIC-ALI (Device for the Study of Critical Liquids & Crystallization-ALICE-like, CNES/NASA): Same observation of last week. Study of boiling phenomena, by performing heat pulses in the diphasic range, at large distance to Tc. Optical observations are made by direct transmission and using interferometry. During the sequence ALI-SC5 we have taken 70000 images. Declic will be turned Off on Friday (293) afternoon. The next run is currently planned in late November.

DTN (Delay Tolerant Network, NASA): Suni, thank you for volunteering your time on your day off to update the ER2 RIC! Together with that update and the laptop setup you performed, we were able to successfully commission the DTN-Laptop payload. This payload is a part of the first international flight DTN network, which hops through US nodes and ends at an ESA robotic rover in Germany. This joint project between the US and ESA is a very important milestone for exploration communications. Disruption/Delay-Tolerant Networking is currently the best model we have for international collaboration in exploration, and is working its way through the international standardization process. Tests like these will ensure the standards we create are useful for future exploration projects. The DTN-Laptop has now been transitioned to ESA and is the Meteron payload and the DTN network you helped build will be used for flight demonstrations of tele-robotics studies, the first of which you will perform with ESA next week. These studies will enable future human exploration missions that can avoid the gravity well of the outer planets, and enable cheaper and faster missions. Thank you for being such an important part of it, and for sharing your free time!"

EarthKAM (Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students): No report.

ELITE-S2 (Elaboratore Immagini Televisive - Space 2): "Thank you Sunita and Aki for performing the troubleshooting and cable deploy activities in preparation for Kevin's first session. ELITE-S2 is one of the Featured Investigations this week."

EMCS (European Modular Cultivation System): "Dear Suni, thank you for helping us for this EMCS maintenance activity on GMT290."

ENERGY (ESA): "Dear Aki, many thanks for completing this demanding experiment, of great importance for ESA! We confirm good reception of your logs, but we will have to wait for the download of your urine and water samples to conclude.". [Background: In the ENERGY experiment, astronauts are invited to participate in a study that aimed to evaluate how much food is needed for astronauts during long-term space missions. To do so, the science team will measure every component or variable of the astronaut's energy expenditure reflecting his energy needs. Those variables will be measured twice: up to 4 months before flight and after at least 3 months in space but 3 weeks before landing. The changes in the astronaut's energy balance and expenditure will be measured, which will help in deriving an equation for energy requirements in weightlessness. This will contribute to planning adequate, but not excessive cargo supplies for food.]

FSL (Fluid Science Laboratory, ESA): | Since GMT289, a second long-duration "stress" test for the FSL Video Management Unit (VMU) is on-going. It is expected to reach completion by GMT293.

FWED (Flywheel Exercise Device, ESA): No report.

GENARA-A (Gravity Regulated Genes in Arabidopsis A/ESA): No report.

GEOFLOW-2 (ESA): Experiment completed! [Background: Everybody is familiar with liquids. In an average day we get to use, handle or drink water or other liquids. And everybody knows how fluids (that is liquids and gases) behave: when subjected to a net force, may be pressure, a temperature difference or gravity, they can move freely. Scientists have been studying how fluids move for centuries, and managed to write mathematical formulas that can describe and predict such movements. Unfortunately, these equations are extremely complex and only approximate solutions are known. As a result, our quantitative understanding of fluid movement is just partial. This is especially true for natural phenomena where the forces can be enormous and unpredictable, like in oceans or in the atmosphere, or the interior of the earth, where rocks are exposed to pressures and temperatures so incredibly high that they slowly move and adapt their shape. That is, over hundreds of years rocks flow just like a very viscous liquid. Scientists try to study such flows but cannot observe them directly due to the fact that they take place deep beneath the surface of our planet. The only way is to have computers simulating those movements starting from the equations, but how to check whether computers are correct? This is what Geoflow II is trying to answer on board the International Space Station. Geoflow II is a miniature planet that has some of its essential ingredients: a fluid can freely move inside a spherical container that rotates, has temperature differences and has a simulated gravity directed towards the centre just like in a real planet. By taking pictures of the fluid movements, scientists are able to understand the essential characteristics of the flows and determine whether computer simulations are correct or whether they need to be refined and improved towards a better understanding of the elusive movements that take place inside our planet.]

HREP (HICO/Hyperspectral Imager for the Coastal Ocean & RAIDS/Remote Atmospheric & Ionospheric Detection System/JAXA): HICO has taken 6597 images to-date. The most recent HICO images include the coast of New Caledonia, part of New Zealand's coastline, part of Argentina's coastline and part of South Africa's coast. RAIDS is continuing to collect secondary Science data including nighttime atmospheric disk photometry, spectra and temperatures. Extreme Ultra Violet airglow spectroscopy and optical contamination studies will also be performed.

IMMUNO (Neuroendocrine & Immune Responses in Humans During & After Long Term Stay at ISS; RS): No report.

INTEGRATED IMMUNE: No report.

InSPACE-3 (Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal Emulsions 3): "Suni: Thank you for the great start with InSPACE-3 run #1, and thank you for your willingness to run the experiment on a crew holiday. This run was a good opportunity to learn more about how our samples have aged since they left our laboratory and how they behave in the magnetic fields. Our initial observations of the data we collected look exciting. We saw the aggregates contract when the pulse was off, which was unexpected and interesting. We are looking forward to studying the larger parameter space during this science increment."

IRIS (Image Reversal in Space, CSA): No report.

ISS Amateur/Ham Radio: No report.

ISSAC (ISS Agricultural Camera, NASA): ISSAC secondary science ops are ongoing and nominal. Special thanks to Suni and Aki in supporting our imaging ops by opening the lab window shutter. We were able to capture 21 targets between Oct 11-18, of which 9 were International Disaster targets.

IV Gen (Intravenous Fluids Generation): No report.

JOURNALS (Behavioral Issues Associated with Isolation and Confinement, NASA): No report. [Studies conducted on Earth have shown that analyzing the content of journals and diaries is an effective method for identifying the issues that are most important to a person. The method is based on the reasonable assumption that the frequency that an issue or category of issues is mentioned in a journal reflects the importance of that issue or category to the writer. The tone of each entry (positive, negative, or neutral) and phase of the expedition also are variables of interest. Study results will lead to recommendations for the design of equipment, facilities, procedures, and training to help sustain behavioral adjustment and performance during long-duration space expeditions to the ISS, asteroids, the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Results from this study could help to improve the behavioral performance of people living and working under a variety of conditions here on Earth.]

MDCA/Flex-2: On GMT 289, we successfully performed three MDCA/FLEX-2 Convective Flow test points using 100% decane fuel at a 1.0-atm chamber environment of 25% oxygen and 75% nitrogen. At this same atmosphere, we were able to achieve diffusive extinction during last week's test points. This week, we were trying to achieve radiative extinction, which, at this high of an oxygen concentration, requires larger initial droplet diameters (Do > 6.0 mm). Droplets this large are challenging to ignite because the settings of the igniters need to be precisely adjusted. We were able to successfully achieve three radiative extinctions. All the test points used the fiber to tether the fuel droplet in place. Two of the test points translated the droplet immediately or shortly after the radiative flame extinguished. We wanted to see how the convective flows induced by the droplet motion affected the evaporation rates of the fuel droplet. Interestingly, we observed that after the radiative flame extinguished, the fuel droplet appeared to aggressively evaporate about the time a vapor cloud began to form; the droplet almost completely evaporated. We will need to do further analysis to determine whether this is the same "persistent" evaporation (i.e., 'Cool Flame') observed earlier with other alkane fuels. This vapor cloud, which we have found to be associated with radiative extinction, represents a unique fire hazard in microgravity. In normal gravity, this fuel vapor would be quickly dispersed by the buoyant flow caused by the heated gases. In microgravity, however, the fuel vapor stays in the vicinity, accumulates and recondenses (note that the vapor cloud could likely stay there for hours if not days or more in microgravity). If an ignition event or fire were present, this cloud could potentially burn or enhance burning. For this reason, after the first radiative extinction, we positioned the igniters into the vapor cloud to attempt to reignite it. When we pulsed the igniters for one second, we observed a brief flash which immediately died out. When we pulsed the igniters for two seconds, we observed a much longer flash (about 2 seconds) that then died out. Thus, it appears that there was ignition, but the flame was not sustainable. Once again, further analysis is required. Diffusive Extinction - Flame extinction caused by an insufficient time for fuel and oxygen to react; occurs at relatively smaller droplet and flame sizes. Radiative Extinction - Flame extinction caused by excessive radiative energy loss from the flame; occurs at relatively larger droplet and flame sizes.

Meteron (ESA): Since GMT289 and for the whole week, ground teams are successfully progressing with the preparatory steps for the crew-tended OPSCOM-1 test currently planned for next week. The DTN laptop has been checked out on GMT290, all the connecting nodes of the DTN network (incl. CU Boulder) have been fully validated.

Micro-6 (NASA): "Suni - thank you for processing the first half of the GAPs for Micro-6, these included the candida albicans samples that were launched viable, were incubated and have now been fixed. This is a fungus that grows as yeast and causes infections in humans. It is an important cause of mortality in immunocompromised patients. The samples will be analyzed for alterations in gene expression on morphology. The remainder of the samples will be processed just before unberth of Dragon. Some of these samples will be returned viable without fixing."

NANOSKELETON (Production of High Performance Nanomaterials in Microgravity, JAXA): No report.

NANO STEP (JAXA): Run #2 started on GMT 274 and will last for 35 days.

NEURORAD (JAXA): No report.

NEUROSPAT (ESA/Study of Spatial Cognition, Novelty Processing and Sensorimotor Integration): No report. [During microgravity stay, the human body goes through multitude of physiological changes in order to accommodate to the new environment. As the brain is a master organ where major crucial processes take place, it is fundamental to understand how it manages adaptation for living in Space. One of the main purposes of Neurospat (NES) experiment is to focus on how microgravity environment influences cerebral activity of astronauts aboard ISS. For this, the global electrical activity of the brain of the astronaut is measured thanks to electroencephalogram (EEG) technique, while he or she is executing specific tasks through a computer as if it was a kind of videogame. In practice, the astronaut is wearing a specially equipped cap with passive, gel filled electrodes that are in contact with his/her scalp while he or she is performing the specific tasks that we have designed. These are visual-orientation perception and visuo-motor tracking tasks that may be encountered on a daily basis. The tasks allow the study of 5 cognitive processes: Perception, Attention, Memorization, Decision and Action. Besides there are also task-irrelevant images that are showed to the astronaut in order to assess how well he or she processes novel visual stimuli. The electrodes all over the scalp are linked to sensitive amplifiers that allow us to measure small variations of electrical potential between different regions of the scalp. These signals are in turn used to estimate activity in the cerebral cortex related to the task being performed. Also, they serve to identify the mental processes associated with these tasks and to localize in the brain the sources of the underlying neural activity. After analysis of the data we can better understand whether the novel environment of microgravity accompanied by a multitude of stressors may place an increased load on the cognitive capacity of the human brain and whether the sensory signals and motor responses of astronauts are processed and interpreted differently because a new reference frame.]

NightPod (ESA): No report.

NOA-1/-2 (Nitric Oxide Analyzer, ESA): Complete.

NUTRITION w/REPOSITORY/ProK: No report.

ODK-2 (Onboard Diagnostic Kit 2, JAXA): No report.

PADIAC (Pathway Different Activators, ESA): No report.

PADLES (JAXA, Area PADLES 6/7; Passive Area Dosimeter for Lifescience Experiment in Space): No report.

PASSAGES (JAXA): No report. [PASSAGES is an experiment about the strategies involved in the perception of the world around us. Seeing correctly the world is necessary to success our gestures, our actions, such as catching a ball, stepping an obstacle on the ground or passing through an opened door. In this experiment, we want to know if the strategies involved on Earth continue to be used when the astronaut is in a weightlessness environment for a long period. To investigate this question, the participant sees 3D scenes on the screen of a laptop such as a video game. The scene is a room with an opening which can vary in width. The task of the participant is to decide if yes or no he or she could pass through the aperture without rotating or scrunching the shoulders. The science team uses typical methods from psychophysics and manipulates several factors to highlight the strategies used by the participant. Then, the science team will compare the performances obtained on ground with those obtained onboard.]

REM (Radiation Environment Monitor, NASA): The REM team would like to express sincere thanks to Akihiko Hoshide for providing excellent support throughout the process of getting REM deployed on the SSCs. Upon deploy, 4 of the 5 REM units started nominally. We had an issue with missing configuration and calibration files on SSC 15 in the JEM for S/N 1009, so it wrote large files of noise, filling up the hard drive. The issue was solved by deleting the data files, uploading the proper configuration and calibration files for S/N 1009 unit, restarting the SSC, and redeploying REM on SSC 15. We are currently in the process of determining optimum acquisition parameters for analysis of data.

RTS (Resist Tubule, JAXA): "Aki, thank you for the watering and MELFI insertion on GMT 289. The sample will be retrieved from MELFI on GMT 293 and then will be incubated till GMT 297."

Reversible Figures (ESA): No report. [Background: The objective of this study is to understand the relationship between gravity and depth perception. Another objective is to identify the problems associated with depth and distance perception in astronauts with the goal of developing countermeasures to reduce any associated performance alteration. This experiment investigates cases in which what astronauts might think to see, fails to achieve a correct representation of the environment, namely, optical illusions. Ten ambiguous figures, with or without depth cues, are presented to an astronaut in virtual reality goggles. These figures are ambiguous because they can be seen at first sight in two different ways. The figure does not change, but after some time the brain reverses (flip-flops) its interpretation. The astronaut is asked to look closely at each figure and to indicate with a mouse trackball which view he/she sees first, and when the view flip-flops. The interval between the views will be compared between 1g and 0g conditions. In 0g, the astronaut will do the test while free-floating to eliminate all orientation cues. This experiment will be performed three times pre-flight, then up to six times in-flight, and again three times post-flight. The science team will then compare the results of these tests across these gravitational environments. It is expected that the frequency of flip-flops of figures with depth cues will be different in between 0g and 1g, and that an adaptation to long-term exposure to weightlessness, as well as a re-adaptation to Earth gravity, will take place.]

ROALD-2 (Role of Apoptosis in Lymphocyte Depression 2, ESA): No report. [Background: The ROALD-2 experiment studies how the function of T-cells from the immune system are affected by microgravity and spaceflight. T-cells play an important role in controlling the immune systems response to infection. It has previously been shown that the immune response of astronauts can be reduced following spaceflight and it has also been shown that the activation of T-cells in culture is reduced in microgravity. A series of experiments on T-cells and other immune system cells have been previously performed by different scientific teams on Space Shuttle and the ISS over the last 30 years. The data from these individual experiments provides information which together can be used to understand the mechanisms by which gravity or the absence of gravity can affect T-cell function.]

Robonaut (NASA): No report.

RRM (Robotic Refuelling Mission, NASA): In standby mode, awaiting the next task/run, refueling. [The RRM investigation demonstrates and tests the tools, technologies and techniques needed to robotically service and refuel satellites in space, especially satellites not originally designed to be serviced. RRM is expected to reduce risks and lay the foundation for future robotic servicing missions in microgravity.]

SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation Testbed, NASA): SCAN Testbed successfully completed RF Subsystem checkout to verify the RF connections internal to the payload. The General Dynamics SDR, Near Earth Network Low Gain Antenna, and Space Network Low Gain Antenna were tested. A single contact was made with the TDRSS Space Network using the aforementioned antennae. These activities represent the first on-orbit S-band transmit operations for SCAN Testbed. The TDRSS folks reported a solid lock on RF from SCAN TB. And the payload was able to verify error free operation on the return link from ISS to the SCAN TB Control Center. The Harris Corporation SDR, Space Network High Gain Antenna, Antenna Pointing System, and Travelling Wave Tube Amplifier were tested. Three contacts were made with TDRS East. Today's activities represent the first on-orbit Ka-band transmit operations for SCAN Testbed, and the first NASA duplex use of Ka-Band. This test was also the first RF closed-loop tracking event using the SCAN TB Antenna Pointing System. As a bonus, SCAN Testbed was actively tracking during the re-boost, and the team was able to see the position deltas and appropriate response by the control algorithm to maintain track. Utilizing the JPL SDR and Space Network Low Gain S-Band Antenna, SCAN Testbed was able to successfully perform duplex communications with TDRS East. Error free communication was verified at the EFEP in the SCAN Testbed Control Center. BER looked strong in SNAS. [Background: The SCaN Testbed provides an orbiting laboratory on space station for the development of SDR (Software Defined Radio) technology. These systems will allow researchers to conduct a suite of experiments over the next several years, enabling the advancement of a new generation of space communications. The testbed is the first space hardware to provide an experimental laboratory to demonstrate many new capabilities, including new communications, networking and navigation techniques that utilize SDR technology. The SCaN Testbed includes three such radio devices, each with different capabilities. These devices will be used by researchers to advance this technology over the Testbed's five year planned life in orbit. Two SDRs were developed under cooperative agreements with General Dynamics and Harris Corp., and the third was developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif. JPL also provided the five-antenna system on the exterior of the testbed, used to communicate with NASA's orbiting communications relay satellites and NASA ground stations across the United States.]

SHD (Space Headaches, ESA): No report. [Background: The neurologists from Leiden University want to study the question whether the astronauts, while in space, suffer from the headaches. With the help of simple questionnaires the astronauts will register the headache episodes and the eventual accompanying symptoms. The results will hopefully help to characterize the frequency and characteristics of space headache and to develop countermeasure to prevent/minimize headache occurrence during the space flight.]

SODI-DSC (Selectable Optical Diagnostics Instrument/Diffusion & Soret Coefficient, ESA): No report. [Background: Fluids and gases are never at rest. This statement is in apparent contradiction with our experience: when we pour water in a glass and wait until all flows have disappeared and the temperature of the liquid is in equilibrium with that of the room, we see that water appears to be completely at rest. However, if we were able to see the individual molecules of water with a very powerful microscope, we would discover that they are incessantly moving and collide with each other following frantic, random paths even if the liquid appears to be quiescent at naked eye. Scientists are interested in observing and measuring such movements because they reveal important, practical information: how fast does heat propagates in a fluid? How fast do liquid mixtures mix? Such phenomena occur in absence of a macroscopic flow, that is when the fluid appears to be at rest, and are called heat and mass diffusion respectively. While the theoretical prediction of heat and mass diffusion is still quite challenging, its measurement is a standard laboratory practice, but may become extremely difficult or impossible when dealing with mixtures of many liquids, due to the fact that such measurement needs to be carried out when the fluid is quiescent, a condition sometimes impossible to achieve on ground. This is precisely the objective of the SODI DSC experiment carried out on board the International Space Station: the measurement of diffusion in mixtures of liquids. By using very sensitive optical techniques, it will be possible to measure mass diffusion, compare with current theories, and improve our present understanding of how molecules move in liquid mixtures. The results will be used by the large team of scientists involved in the project to try to understand which of the many existing theories for mass diffusion is correctly predicting the experimental behavior.]

SOLAR (Solar Monitoring Observatory, ESA): Sun Visibility Window #58 (SVW) has started on GMT289. Nominal SOLSPEC spectrum measurements and calibration measurements were performed so far. New scripts for SOLACES were also tested to prepare the SVW bridging event in December 2012. On GMT291, SOLACES was configured in heated mode in conjunction with a Service Module thruster reboost event. The SVW#58 is predicted to last until GMT299.

SWAB (Characterization of Microorganisms & Allergens in Spacecraft): No report.

TASTE IN SPACE (ESA): No report.

THERMOLAB (ESA): No report.

TRAC (Test of Reaction & Adaptation Capabilities): Planned.

TREADMILL KINEMATICS: "Thank you Suni! Two more left if crewtime permits."

TRIPLELUX-B (ESA): No report.

ULTRASOUND: Planned.

UMS (Urine Monitoring System (NASA): No report.

VASCULAR (CSA): No report.

VCAM (Vehicle Cabin Atmosphere Module, NASA): No report.

VESSEL ID System (ESA): Nominal data acquisition with the NorAIS receiver. [Background: As the ISS circles Earth, it has been tracking individual ships crossing the seas beneath. An investigation hosted by ESA in COL module has been testing the viability of monitoring global maritime traffic from the station's orbit hundreds of kilometers above since June 2010. The ship-detection system being tested is based on the AIS (Automatic Identification System), the marine equivalent of the air traffic control system. Astronauts were instrumental in enabling the COLAIS experiment, which is an in-orbit demonstration project of ESA's General Support Technology Program. COL was not originally outfitted with VHF antennas to capture the AIS signals; they were installed on the outside of the module during a spacewalk in November 2009, with the remaining piece of hardware, the ERNOBox control computer, installed inside COL along with the NORAIS receiver in May 2010.- The two operational phases with the first receiver from Norway, or NORAIS, which is operated by FFI/Norway, have been extremely successful, with data telemetry received by the N-USOC, in Trondheim, Norway, via ESA's COL-CC in Germany. Data has been received by NORAIS in almost continuous operation, and all modes of operation have worked extremely well. On a good day, approximately 400,000 ship position reports are received from more than 22,000 different ship identification numbers (Maritime Mobile Service Identity, or MMSI). -- The NORAIS Receiver has a sample mode that can collect the raw signal, digitize it and send it to ground for analysis of signal quality, which is proving very helpful in making additional improvements/ refinements to the system. This is used both to investigate the signal environment and to evaluate the performance of new receiver technologies on the ground. Several hundred data sets have been collected and processed with new candidate algorithms for next generation receivers.-- From the assessment of these data sets, an updated version of the decoder algorithm has been worked. The development benefits from the investigations of the sampled data and ongoing work in other ESA projects. The firmware was uploaded to the NORAIS Receiver through the station's communications network. This upgrade #1 ("NORAIS Receiver FPGA firmware v18"), was activated on 1/20/2012.-- The on-orbit data of the NORAIS Receiver v18 have been analyzed since and show very good results. The teams are confident in the operation and performance of v18 and have now preliminary results of the comparison of the performance of the upgraded NORAIS Receiver (v18) relative to the version operated prior to the upgrade (v16).-- Changes of the signal environment on ISS can influence the number of correctly decoded messages, which makes it important to compare the results of this upgrade to a period running the old algorithm with a similar background level.-- The daily averages are calculated for 11 days for both receiver versions. For the upgrade, the period considered for comparison is 1/21-1/31/2012, which are the first 11 days of operation. When selecting the period for the reference data it was important to find a period with the same background signal level as the 11 days with the upgraded NORAIS Receiver. The period from 11/27 - 12/7/2011 was. Even though the two 11 day periods are 45 days apart, the ship traffic should not be very different around the world, except for some regions in the north that may be hampered by sea ice. -- The performance has been studied as the average number of decoded messages per day for the current upgrade v18 of the firmware and the original NORAIS Receiver software. The improvement is the ratio of these numbers (so average numbers of messages per day before the upgrade divided by number of messages after the upgrade). The number of messages from ships in various geographic areas shows a variation in the ratio of messages from 1.2 to 2.0, whereas the ratio of MMSI's ranges from 1.1 to 1.9. The improvement in the Mediterranean is almost a factor of 2.0 in number of messages, and more than 1.6 in number of distinct ships per day. The improvement in other high-traffic zones, at the Gulf of Mexico and East Asia, is even higher.]

VESSEL IMAGING (ESA): No report. [Background: It is known that the ability of blood vessels to vasoconstrict - the ability of the muscular vessel wall to narrow the diameter of the blood vessel - is impaired during and after a human has been in space. "Vessel Imaging" is using the Ultrasound scanner on board the ISS to take images of the five different blood vessels in the lower abdomen and in the legs to study what changes occur to cause the blood vessels to be less able to vasoconstrict. For each vessel, a 5 second scan is performed to observe the blood vessel during several heart beats, followed by a scan where the ultrasound scan-head is tilted to allow a "cut through the blood vessel wall". The same scans are also performed before flight, and these pre-flight images are used as the baseline to which the in-flight data is compared with. The images are analyzed to detect any changes in the blood vessel wall properties, such as wall thickness, elasticity or structure, changes in the size of the blood vessel or blood flow (volume) while the crewmember is in orbit.]

WAICO #1/#2 (Waving and Coiling of Arabidopsis Roots at Different g-levels; ESA): No report.

YEAST B (ESA): No report.

YOUTUBE SpaceLab: "Thank you very much for sending us the pictures of Cleo. We are glad to see she is still moving around. If the spiders make it back on Dragon, our plan is to meet them in California and get them into fresh habitats with fruit flies and record their re-adaptation."

CEO (Crew Earth Observation): Through 10/16 the ground has received 4,323 of ISS CEO frames from Expedition 33 for review and cataloging. "We are pleased to report that we have received imagery this week with camera times corresponding to our CEO target request times as follows: Piccaninny Impact, Western Australia - 2 frames in 2 sessions - target not acquired; Lilongwe, Malawi, 1 frame - target not acquired; Buenos Aires, Argentina - 31 frames - target acquired - requirements have been met for this target and is being removed from our site list; Lake Poopo, Bolivia - 36 frames - target acquired - excellent imagery - seasonal requirements have been met for this target; Caracas, Venezuela - 11 frames - target not acquired; Manila, Philippines - 13 frames - target acquired - more clouds and haze present than we anticipated - we will continue to request this site; and Antananarivo, Madagascar - 24 frames - target acquired - thin cirrus overcast - we will continue to request this site. Additionally, review of earlier imagery indicates requirements have been met with your imagery for Chiloe Island, Chile and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. These two sites will also be removed from our list. Your progress in acquiring useful imagery of our sites is nothing short of marvelous. Kudos to the crew for your support of our payload! Your strikingly beautiful and cloud-free view of Wake Island, Pacific Ocean was published on the NASA/GSFC Earth Observatory website this past weekend. Your photo details the key natural features and man-made structures on this famous Pacific atoll. Very nice!"

CEO (Crew Earth Observation) targets uplinked for today were Chaing Mai, Thailand (this sprawling metropolitan area almost 700,000 is the economic and cultural center of northern Thailand. Today ISS had a good pass over this target in mid-afternoon sun with partly cloudy conditions. At this time as ISS approached from the SW, the crew was to look just left of track for urban areas in the complex of ridges and valleys), Dodoma, Tanzania (CAPITAL CITIES COLLECTION SITE: ISS approach to this target today was from the SW at midday with partly cloudy weather expected. ISS had a near-nadir pass over the Tanzanian capital city with a population of 325,000. Best visual cues were Mtera Reservoir to the south, Lake Sulunga to the west, and dark hills around the urban area. Trying to capture this city in a single frame), Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania (ISS had a midday pass directly over Africa's highest mountain located in northern Tanzania near the border with Kenya and roughly midway between the large Lake Victoria and the Indian Ocean. ISS approach was from the SW, and while the surrounding area may have a few clouds, the summit area should be cloud-free. At this time shortly after passing the Dodoma target, the crew was to look towards nadir and try for detailed views of the summit ice fields, glaciers, and snow cover), Floods in Chad (INTERNATIONAL DISASTER CHARTER SITE: Heavy rains which started in early August have caused continuing floods in Chad. Hundreds of thousands of people have been affected by the floods, with damage to both property and agriculture. The persisting worst areas noted are in the Rig Rig District of the Kanem Region - northeast of Lake Chad, the Sila Region - southeast Chad, in the Guera Region - south-central Chad, and in the capital, N'Djamena - southwest Chad along the Chari River. ISS had an early afternoon pass in fair weather with its approach from the SW. At this time, with most of the areas of interest well left of track, the crew was to try for broad context views of the areas of interest; with focus on rivers and drainage areas), St. Paul Rocks Islets, BRA (HMS BEAGLE SITE: Darwin and the Beagle briefly visited this isolated, equatorial Atlantic site in early February of 1832. This tiny group of islets and rocks is also known as the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago. The islands are of particular interest to geologists as they expose rocks associated with the Earth's mantle above sea level. At this time the crew was to aim carefully just right of track for these small features marked best by breaking waves. With partly cloudy weather expected, they may have been able to photograph at least a few of them in a detailed mapping pass), Belize Barrier Reef Reservation (Charles Darwin described these reefs as "the most remarkable reef in the West Indies". The Belize Barrier Reefs are a significant habitat for threatened species, including the West Indian manatee, green turtle, American crocodile, and many others. This reef system became part of the UNESCO World Heritage site list in 1996, and a part of the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2009 due to coral bleaching, which has damaged over 40% of Belize's coral reef. ISS had a good early afternoon pass in partly cloudy weather with its approach from the SW for this target. At this time, as ISS drew near the coast of the Gulf of Honduras, the crew was to shoot just right of track and try for a detailed mapping strip from S to N for this target area), and Sian Kaan B. Mangroves, MEX (ISS had a fine, midday pass in partly cloudy weather for this target area located on the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. This large World Heritage Site of ~1.3 million acres was established as a biosphere area in 1986, and preserves fauna, flora and archeological sites. At this time, as ISS tracked northeastward and approached the coast, the target was in nadir for this area with its visual cues of two major bays on the Caribbean Sea).